"Many 'new features' are useless or defeat the original purposes Snapchat has had for the past years."

"This petition aims to help convince Snap Inc. to change the app back to the basics, before this new 2018 update."

One of the big changes included merging Stories from your Snapchat friends with all of your chats.

This panel, which is found by swiping left, is ordered automatically by an algorithm that guesses who you're most keen to chat with.

In a statement, Snapchat explained: "You can think of it as a more sophisticated Best Friends algorithm that makes it easier to find the friends you want to talk to, when you want to talk to them.

The old Chat panel has now been merged with Stories into a new Friends feed

"We've all had the frustrating experience of scrolling endlessly through our Chats to find the right person – now your friends will be listed in the order that you want to talk to them."

But users who hate the new design are desperately seeking workarounds to avoid the update.
One of the simplest ways is to simply turn off app auto-updates on your smartphone, but this only works if the update hasn't already been installed.

It's also possible to download older versions of the app on Android, and some users are using VPNs (or virtual proxy networks) to trick the app into showing an older design.

But Snapchat's Twitter support account is warning that this shouldn't be done.

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"Don't believe everything you read on the internet – unofficial workarounds to change the way Snapchat looks are temporary and can result in getting permanently locked out of your account or losing Memories."

Another tweet reads: "If you're connected to a VPN, we recommend disconnecting before using Snapchat. Using a VPN can result in unexpected behaviour in the app."

We asked Snap Inc. what it thinks of the petition, but the company declined to comment.